Judicial Review

Defending judicial reviews

We have extensive experience acting for public bodies defending judicial reviews.
We understand the resourcing, financial, and reputational costs involved in defending a claim, and are able to provide practical advice, along with specialist technical knowledge, to ensure cases are defended in a strategic and cost-effective way.

Getting our expert judicial review team involved early on (for example, after receiving a pre-action letter) ensures that we can advise you effectively on the merits of the case, consider alternatives to litigation, and ensure you are complying with the Pre-Action Protocol for Judicial Review. We often find that well-drafted correspondence in the pre-action stage can prevent the matter from escalating to litigation.

If the matter does proceed to an application, we can, if necessary, help you to defend the claim all the way to Court.

Bringing judicial reviews

We are experts in bringing judicial review claims, for charities, campaign groups, individuals, and businesses.

Due partly to Bates Wells’ position as the UK’s leading charity law firm, we are particularly experienced in acting for non-profits and other value-driven organisations. If you are considering whether judicial review might serve your campaigning or strategic objectives, we can help you to scope out potential claims. We always see the bigger picture, and are experienced in aligning with our clients’ media and communications approach. We will also help you to consider whether your goals can be achieved more effectively through an alternative approach.

We can also advise you on funding options (for example, crowdfunding and working with litigation funders), and in securing costs capping orders to limit your liability for the other side’s costs if your challenge is unsuccessful.

Interested Parties, Interveners and witnesses

Often, parties beyond the claimant and defendant will want (or need) to participate in judicial review proceedings.

If you stand to be directly affected by the outcome of a claim, you may wish to seek interested party status; we can advise you on how best to protect your interests while minimising your costs exposure.

We also represent interveners, who wish to make sure their perspective is before the Court – for example, charities looking to have their expert knowledge taken into account, or campaign groups hoping to shape a decision in line with their objectives.

We can also advise on whether submitting evidence in support of one of the the parties is a strategically better option than seeking interested party status or intervening, and can work with you (and the other party) to prepare impactful witness evidence.

• Representing Social Work England as both a defendant and an interested party in a range of judicial reviews, in both the High Court and the Court of Appeal.
• Acting for a claimant challenging an attempt by the Charity Commission to curtail trustee grant making powers.
• Representing the RSPCA intervening in a challenge to the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs for failing to enforce animal welfare standards in relation to broiler chickens.
• Advising the Ramblers’ Association in relation to a number of judicial reviews, including a challenge to a Planning Inspector’s refusal to confirm a local council’s order for the creation of a public footpath.
• Acting for a claimant challenging the Foreign Office’s decision to cut the overseas aid budget.
• Advising a school governing body on a potential challenge to the lawfulness of its consultation on a proposal to academise.
• Defending the first ever application for judicial review brought against the Waterways Ombudsman.
• Defending Airport Coordination Limited against a challenge brought by the administrators of Monarch Airlines concerning the status of the airline’s take-off and landing slots post-insolvency.
• Helping a non-profit doctors’ campaign group to prepare witness evidence in support of a challenge to the GMC’s approach to regulating physician and anaesthesia associates.

Our lawyers also bring diverse judicial review experience from their previous roles, including, for example:

• Acting for the claimant in a challenge to the Department of Health and Social Care regarding the award (during the Covid-19 pandemic) of a multi-million pound PPE contract to a company with links to a Government Minister.
• Acting for various central Government departments in challenges across many sectors, including defence, immigration, policing, and health.
• Acting for an airport developer in defending a challenge to the grant of a Development Consent Order.
• Advising a conservation charity and its co-claimants in a challenge to DEFRA’s failure to take adequate action on sewage discharges.
• Defending various NHS bodies against challenges to their service reconfiguration plans.
• Representing a claimant doctor in a challenge to a regulator’s refusal to instigate fitness to practise proceedings against a practitioner promoting anti-vaccine views.
• Defending a national sports body against a challenge relating to its definition of sport.
• Representing an individual challenging the Secretary of State for the Home Department’s decision to certify the individual’s asylum claim as “clearly unfounded”.
• Acting for an environmental regulator defending a challenge to its new regulations (in both the High Court and the Court of Appeal).